We recently looked at why the government and the press (outside of some bloggers and opinion columnists) have not labeled the murder of an abortion provider as "terrorism." It's important to remember, though, that this isn't an isolated incident. The word terrorism is used by the FBI and Department of Justice only when it fits a certain political agenda.

The government has systematically labeled animal rights and environmental activists who have never harmed anyone as "the number one domestic terrorism threat." Yet the term is not applied to individuals who have committed much more serious (and often violent) crimes either for personal gain or for right-wing motives.

Here are 30 cases that the government has chosen to not label as "terrorism"...

Dr. George Tiller, one of the few late-term abortion providers in the country, was murdered inside his church on Sunday, and the only suspect is Scott Roeder, a man The New York Times said "had professed an anti-government, anti-abortion philosophy." U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder called the murder an "abhorrent act of violence," but he hasn't used the word "terrorism." Not once.

Why?

As a bit of context, if you're new to this website, the FBI labels the animal rights and environmental movements as the "number one domestic terrorism threat" even though those activists have never harmed a human being. At the very worst, underground groups like the Animal Liberation Front and Earth Liberation Front have released animals from fur farms, destroyed SUVs and set fire to empty buildings.

When animal rights activists or environmental activists are arrested, though, the government immediately sends out press releases and holds press conferences trumpeting the arrest of "eco-terrorists" and "domestic terrorists."

So it's pretty startling that government hasn't used the T-word, considering that we're talking about murder, and, as James Ridgeway notes over at Mother Jones, Roeder was also arrested in 1996 with ammunition, gunpowder, a blasting cap, and a fuse chord in his car. He was sentenced to two years of supervised probation. (By contrast, the SHAC 7 received years in prison for running a website).